Vance Goforth joins Devon Wieters to share his family’s experience advocating for his son Joshua, who survived shaken baby syndrome as an infant and later lived with multiple disabilities, seizures, and severe behavioral crises. Vance describes years of seeking appropriate care, a treatment facility’s written denial tied to Joshua’s wheelchair, promised services that never arrived, repeated emergency situations, and the long fight to secure inpatient treatment.
The conversation also explores the effects of prolonged crisis on the whole family, the faith that sustained Vance and his wife Christy, and the advocacy work that grew from their experience through A Voice for Joshua.
Wheel With It was formerly called Real Talk: All Things Inclusion. This episode was originally released under the Real Talk name and is now part of the Wheel With It archive. Some terminology reflects the language used at the time of the original recording.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Real Talk introduction and content warning
01:00 Meet Vance Goforth
01:45 How Joshua joined the family
02:52 Surviving shaken baby syndrome
04:39 Living with 30–50 seizures a day
06:25 Early medical warnings and later behaviors
10:45 Medication, crisis, and seeking help
14:22 The van emergency that changed everything
17:51 Calling the insurer—and getting no solution
21:20 The Siskin Institute evaluation
23:31 A psychiatrist recommends inpatient treatment
27:00 Lost paperwork and the search for placement
30:10 Admission denied over a wheelchair
31:37 Reporting the denial
33:48 The waiver waitlist and DIDD
42:01 ECF Choices promises services
43:26 Weeks become months—and then a year
48:07 A 2017 crisis and another call for help
53:37 An out-of-state hospital in Atlanta
56:19 The process resets after discharge
57:07 Vance’s idea for “Joshua’s Law”
58:10 An ABA therapist recommends inpatient care
01:01:23 A seizure and a ten-day emergency
01:03:27 The dental procedure and 911 response
01:12:01 Returning to the Atlanta hospital
01:18:18 Transfer to Springbrook in South Carolina
01:21:34 Fifteen months of treatment, faith, and hope
01:22:45 How the crisis affected Joshua’s siblings
01:25:58 Jeremiah 29:11 and the family’s anchor
01:28:48 A Voice for Joshua
01:29:50 Original Real Talk outro
CONNECT WITH VANCE GOFORTH
A Voice for Joshua on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/changeforjosh
Read Vance’s advocacy writing through the National Council on Severe Autism:
https://www.ncsautism.org/blog/blog/autism-its-time-to-take-the-conversation-back
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